2003 Honda Civic Hybrid

Do you want to look and feel virtuous?

May 2002
By
CSABA CSERE

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There's nothing quite as exhilarating as winding a Ferrari 360 Modena to its 8500-rpm redline with the driver's window down and the intake duct screaming in your left ear. But unless you're on a racetrack, you can't flog your Ferrari for long without accumulating a bundle of moving violations. If you want to flog a car continually, choose an economy special.

Allow us to nominate the 2003 Honda Civic hybrid for this duty. Now available in Honda showrooms, this new version of the Civic achieves 47 mpg on the EPA city cycle and 51 mpg on the highway cycle with the five-speed manual. With the optional CVT, it gets 48 mpg on both. Either way, that's about the same combined mileage as for the Toyota Prius, the only other gasoline-electric hybrid four-door sedan on the market.

Unlike the Prius, however, which is a unique vehicle dedicated to gasoline parsimony, this Civic is pretty much the same seventh-generation small Honda sedan that was introduced as a 2001 model. Its fuel efficiency comes from the addition of the gas-electric powertrain and a few minor tweaks.

Pop this Civic's hood, and you'll find a modified version of the Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) energizer introduced on the Insight two years ago (see sidebar). A thin electric motor, sandwiched between the gasoline engine and the five-speed transmission, provides up to 13 horsepower to boost the Civic's performance when necessary. During coasting and light braking, this motor also serves as a generator to recharge the Civic hybrid's nickel-metal hydride battery located between the rear seat and the trunk.

Think of this IMA system as an electric supercharger that provides additional performance without using much energy because it recovers the Civic's momentum to recharge itself. Coupled to the 115-hp gasoline engine in the Civic LX, the IMA would yield a considerable performance boost. But since Honda was after fuel economy, the IMA's extra power in the hybrid was coupled to a smaller, more efficient gasoline engine. Idle shutoff, under most circumstances, saves even more.

A further six percent or so of efficiency improvement comes from a few vehicle tweaks. A new front air dam and rear spoiler, along with revised underbody panels, reduce the drag coefficient from 0.30 to 0.28. Electrically assisted power steering reduces the parasitic losses on the engine, and special tires reduce the Civic's rolling resistance.

If all of this sounds like a variation on the Insight and Prius themes, you're not all wrong. But the Civic hybrid feels far more normal than the earlier hybrids, thanks to its more refined chassis. Its P185/70SR-14 Dunlop SP20FE tires, inflated to a moderate 30 psi, have none of the brittle hardness that seems to communicate every zit and dimple on the pavement to the interiors of the Prius and Insight. As a result, ride quality and road noise are vastly improved in the Civic.

The Civic hybrid also exhibits excellent straight-line stability, with none of the Insight's eagerness to be deflected from its path by side winds and worn roads. This chassis even delivers decent grip, with 0.81 g available in the corners before the front tires start grinding (adding a few psi to the front tires would likely boost the grip further). The ABS-equipped disc and drum brake combination stops the Civic hybrid in 191 feet and is plenty strong enough to deal with hard mountain-road driving, at least when the Civic is lightly loaded.

This chassis is more than capable enough to harness all the speed the hybrid powertrain can deliver. With the battery meter showing a full charge, the Civic can scoot to 60 mph in 10.9 seconds. Add 2.2 seconds if the battery is too depleted for the IMA to help. Either way, top speed is 107 mph.

Unless you are winding the engine out in every gear, however, the Civic hybrid feels slower than these numbers suggest. In top gear, for example, 16 or 17 seconds are needed to add 20 mph to your speed—and that's with a full charge. With the battery flat, it takes nearly 30 seconds to accelerate from 30 to 50 mph in fifth gear.

This lack of snap is no mystery when you pore over the Honda spec books and see that the hybrid weighs about 200 more pounds than a Civic LX and is geared 15 percent taller. Yes, the hybrid powertrain does generate a maximum of 116 pound-feet of torque at 1500 rpm, and the LX can only muster 110 pound-feet at 4500 revs, but with its weight and gearing deficits, the hybrid's torque advantage only exists below 1500 rpm. You'll find yourself shifting down to fourth, and even third, to maintain a 75-mph cruise on the highway.

When you do that a lot, as we did, you won't realize the lofty EPA mileage estimates. We measured 38 mpg during our time with the Civic hybrid, flogging it mercilessly to pass on mountain roads around L.A. On our most sedate section—at 70 mph on a level, flat interstate—we saw 49 mpg on the trip computer. To squeeze this kind of mileage requires that you unlearn such habits as shifting into neutral when you coast to a stop (can't regenerate when you're not in gear). Most important, you want to obey the shift indicator lights, which will hector you to stay in top gear as much as possible.

When you do that, the Civic hybrid lopes along very nicely. It will lug down to 1300 rpm in top gear before the engine starts to rebel. And on country two-lane roads at 60 mph, the hybrid cruises serenely and quietly.

In fact, when driven sedately, the hybrid seems quieter, smoother, and generally more relaxed than the mainstream LX model. To highlight this benefit, Honda has equipped the Civic hybrid with standard features such as alloy wheels, side airbags for the front occupants, a remote-entry system, and a CD player that are either optional on the LX or standard as well on the higher-line EX. The hybrid even has an automatic climate-control system unavailable on any other Civic. In other words, you won't be roughing it while you save fuel in this Civic.

But neither will you be saving a great deal of money. If we compare the Civic hybrid to the Civic LX, which is the most comparable conventional Civic, we find the following: If you drive 15,000 miles every year and gas is $1.50 a gallon, you'll save about $240 a year. To realize this saving, you will have paid about $20,000 (final prices are pending) for the Civic hybrid—a solid $3500 more than the price of an LX with alloy wheels, a CD player—and a small allowance for the hybrid's automatic climate-control system. Put that increment in a money-market account at five percent, and you'll earn $175 every year. At that rate, allowing for the time value of money, you will never save enough gas to pay back the premium you paid for the hybrid model.

That said, readers of this magazine don't buy vehicles for their economic benefits. There is no financial payback for the extra cost to buy a Corvette's 175-mph top speed or a Lexus LS430's sumptuous luxury or the king-of-the-road feeling we get in a Cadillac Escalade. We willingly pay for these vehicles because we like how they make us feel and look to the rest of the world. And if you want to look and feel virtuous in a vehicle that is perfectly practical, this Civic is for you. Flog it with a clear conscience.

Those familiar with the Insight will recognize the Integrated Motor Assist powertrain used in the Civic hybrid. A 13-hp, 144-volt DC electric motor is sandwiched between the gasoline engine and the transmission to boost power when needed. However, the Civic's motor is about a quarter-inch thicker than the Insight's and can generate more torque (46 versus 36 pound-feet) as well as more electricity during regenerative braking.

This electricity is stored in a battery consisting of 120 1.2-volt Ni-MH D-cells wired in series. Although total capacity is down slightly from the Insight's (6.0 versus 6.5 AH), the Civic's battery can charge and discharge more rapidly and efficiently. The battery is housed in a unit with the electrical controller in a package that weighs only 63 pounds and is one-third smaller than the Insight's.

Because the Civic is a larger and heavier car than the Insight, its IMA system is coupled to an 85-hp, 1.3-liter four-cylinder engine, rather than the Insight's 67-hp, 1.0-liter three-banger. Moreover, the Civic's engine is a generation more sophisticated, with a new dual-spark-plug cylinder head that fires the plugs either sequentially or simultaneously to operate in the lean-burn mode more efficiently and more often. Although you'd never notice it, on a flat road, this Civic engine would operate at the lean 22:1 air-to-fuel ratio more than 60 percent of the time.

This engine also incorporates a VTEC cylinder idling system to reduce engine braking by closing the valves in three of the four cylinders when coasting. By reducing the power the engine absorbs, this system allows the IMA to extract more electrical energy during coasting and braking. —CC

PATRICK BEDARDConserving fuel is a matter of "personal virtue," says Vice-President Cheney, and shouldn't be mandated by the feds. One question: Do you still get to feel virtuous if the saving doesn't hurt? Apart from the Accord-size initial price hit, this Civic hybrid is completely painless. It's smoother and quieter than a normal Civic, it happily held its space in every fast lane we tried, and the snick of its five-speed will make Porsche drivers envious. Still snagged on the sticker? Think of 600-plus miles in every tank and all the time you won't waste at Arco. Fuel isn't all this sweetheart saves.

LARRY WEBSTERAs much as I admire the technical sophistication of the Honda Insight, it made me think that only those hellbent on displaying their enviro holiness would deal with the tight interior, darty highway moves, and uncomfortable seats. This Civic removes all those vices and is in fact a real car. The thing that struck me most was the speed at which the Civic recharges its batteries. I drove hard up a 12-mile mountain pass, and every time I was momentarily slowed by traffic, the Civic would quickly charge the batteries. Even on the long uphill road, there was always enough juice for passing.

JEFFREY DWORINThe folks at Honda could learn a thing or two from the Apple computer guys. After all, both companies are adept at building and selling well-designed consumer goods to people who appreciate such things. Apple's simple and effective ad campaign for its newest iMac has every gadget freak and purist alike craving to buy one just for the sake of ownership. Honda's hybrid vehicles have just as much style and much more technology than any desktop computer, yet Honda hasn't done much to spread the word. Each time I find myself explaining Honda's hybrid powertrain to someone, it seems clear that he or she is hearing about it for the first time .

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